This morning, I was reading on the web and found this, an abortionist asking a key question:
"But can I ask you a question? You have asked many questions, so let me
ask you: Why is it okay to put a dog to sleep because it hurts too much,
but it's not okay to put a human to sleep? He needs to suffer? That's
reasonable? I don't think so."
Interestingly, this abortionist, a professed atheist who thinks that
abortion is either equivalent to birth control, when performed early,
or, if performed later in pregnancy, euthanasia, does not seem to see
why killing a dog might be different than killing a human being.
As philosopher Bryan Cross points out, the combination of nominalism and empiricism results in scientism, whereby a difference between dogs and humans is no longer seen. Coming to see again is part of the solution, and, in part, that requires philosophy---not reduced or truncated philosophy, but something that is more sincere, more fully developed, and more morally serious. And, it requires returning to what we knew before we even started doing philosophy or medicine, to things that are true regardless of philosophy and medicine. Indeed, one of the marks of good philosophy is its connectedness to what we know before we do it. In other words, philosophy builds on common sense or common experience or what we know before we do philosophy. A philosophy that cuts against or undermines that pre-philosophical knowledge, if you will, is something to be very cautious of.
A doctor who no longer sees the difference between a human being and a dog is also something to be very cautious of, especially for those in the womb, if not also for those out of the womb. Is he a medical doctor acting as a vet or a vet acting as a medical doctor? With respect to abortion, and aside from the fact that unjustified abortion is not an attempt to make an individual healthier, he is treating humans like dogs, if not worse than dogs, not even recognizing their dignity as human beings, reducing them to mere animals in his mind and then physically destroying them to the point of death, which he refers to as 'sleep'.
